El Leoncito - Titusville — Restaurant in Titusville

To start with the background of tonight's experience there were 3 us tonight for dinner. I'm a server at a locally, my sister's been in hospitality management/sales, and our wonderful mother has spent upwards of 50+ years in hospitality/service (sorry mom!)

Our server Michael started by taking our order without a pen & paper or tablet within sight. Starting with my sister first, my mother then myself he had forgotten my sisters order by the time he got done with mine. My sister and myself ordered honey-vanilla margarita's before the food and while tasty they had very little alcohol. Typically I'll order one drink and 2 if I'm feeling extra spicy. I ordered a second drink with my food which sat on the bar for over 8 minutes (I should have gotten it myself but as a server i would never do that to MY server)before I stopped looking at the clock. My sister had a chimichanga which was okay while being nothing impressive. My mother ordered a burrito with double black beans which the second order of beans did not arrive with the food, and lastly myself which ordered a mojara with the fish being over fried almost to the point of a dirty/burnt taste. While the food preparation was not our server's fault his inattentiveness was because my salad that I ordered with honey mustard never came until I asked for it TWICE along with my second drink that spent over 8 minutes wasting away in front of me on the bar counter, along with Michael forgetting not once or twice, but THREE entire times to get my mother's second half of her double black beans. He took checks and cashed out 2 tables before having any approach to fixing our issues which ultimately made the entire atmsphere uncomfortable as we watched him take care of guest who had been finished eating. we watched our food get cold(or not delivered at all). Poor Michael was visibly shook and refused to come check on us once we finally received everything to make sure everything was okay. My sister sat parched without another delicious margarita for over 10 minutes before she decided she would do without. I had to get our server's attention for the check, a box for the cats to enjoy, and to speak the manager regarding our concerns. With the nicest tone possible I explained to the manager about the waiter not writing anything down, the complete lack attention to our food which half of was wrong, the server never coming back so I couldn't get the correct dressing. she didnt seem too concerned but offered nothing in compensation, no dessert was offered by staff or management at the end of our meal. I told the server what I said to the management on my way out and he raised his voice to the point of yelling/stuttering at me saying he needed to explain himself, which I promptly cut him off saying he should listen instead because I'm trying to help him. I hate to write this but I was planning on leaving $50 on a $100 tab and our service just wasnt deserving of such. I left $10 to cover the bar and busser which he didn't deserve but I can't conciously make my server tip out from their own pocket. I really should have asked for the bar tender, food runner and busser's attention to tip them myself but after being yelled at for voicing my concern it was best that I just left. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use this as training reference to make your business better one employee at a time, from server, management and beyond. As a guest who is on the service side 5-7 days a week I just felt as if nothing was done about the situation and I left with utter dissatisfaction. Understandably things happen but from the beginning of forgetting my sister's order, my salad arriving with the wrong dressing, watching my drink die on the bar as he passed it 5x, not bringing everything as ordered, and to top it off watching credit cards being ran instead of fixing our situation was the icing on the cake. A simple gesture of taking that salad off, a free drink or dessert would have made all the difference from management but she as well completely left us in the dust. What a...

They were accomodating to us and our puppy due to their dog policy. Just make sure the dog does, No barking, No biting and No eating off your plate. We sat on the patio. Our puppy was a bit anxious, so we asked to just have our food prepared, and I would pick it up inside, so as not to spook my service dog in training. He barked at the waitress. They sent someone to drop off the food. He didn't speak English at all. He brought coffee with no cream or sugar. I asked about cream and he said:" Sour cream"? 1. The cream arrived when the coffee was cold. 2. The nachos were terrible. There was no salsa and the sour cream was to lottle and dumped on the side. There were beans in it and not much noticable meat. The fish tacos looked amazing, but some idiot put fried pork skins on top. I saw it on the menu( a terrible idea) and informed the person who took my order that i didn't want any. I'm actually allergic to pork. The manager was called to correct the mistakes. 3. She brought back the nasty nachos and had them pull the pork skin off the tacos. 4. That was more disappointing than the cashier not knowing their key strokes to bill for the orders. 5. It was worst than the cook destroying the tacos with a terrible idea to add fried pork skins. 6. The insulting thing was the cold tacos coming back with remnants of the fried pork skins clearly still on the tacos. Remember, I'm allergic. 7. She lied and said they were fresh, but they were cold. No apologies were made for the deception, just a pivot to: " What would you like me to do? 8. The Mexican street corn was made from frozen corn pieces insteadd of whole corn. They charged $8.00 for a nibble of frozen corn sprinkled with Mexican queso and a little chipotle powder and cilantro. It wasn't worth $3.50 much less $8.00. The final failure was the magarita. It tasted watered-down, and the ice floated instead of the whole drink being frozen. It seems it was waiting too long to be served. To her credit, she corrected the bill from $50. to $15.00. To be honest, we never ate the nachos we took to go. I wanted to pay something to avoid any accusations of the trope of people using bad reviews to avoid their food bill. The nachos were supposedly fresh( turned out to be another disingenuous action ). It was the same nachos. The place needs; Proper staff training, focus on Menu integrity, A new chef (A real chef wouldn't be caught dead adding fried pork skins to a fish taco), and honest corrections of any mistakes by management, rather than insulting recycling of bad food. The place came highly recommended, and I may give it another chance for takeout. I will send a decoy to make the purchase. That's the only way to give it a fair second review. The area needs great restaurants and this one is a brilliant idea. It's unfortunately being poorly executed based on my one experience. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 star because the dog created an added difficulty in service. I offered to serve myself, but instead, a runner brought the food, and we...

I have lived in Florida for 18 years and had long despaired of finding a decent Mexican restaurant. I despair no longer. Within the first five minutes, I was marveling over the MANY things El Leoncito gets exactly perfect. (I discovered this place on my way home from work in Titusville. I had been in the hot sun for about five hours and was tired, hot, hungry, and especially thirsty.)

1 -- As soon as I was seated at a quiet shaded table on the patio, my server brought chips & salsa (of course) and a menu. "What would you like to drink?" I almost cried. Almost. Instead I replied, "I want your biggest, most top-shelf margarita, rocks, extra salt." His immediate response: "Well, that would be our House margarita, of course!" Pretty bold and ballsy. First time a server ever claimed that, at least to me. Of COURSE I'm going to take him up on it. And it was awesome.

2 -- When he left, I sampled the chips & salsa. I expected the salsa to be homemade (it was) and bland (it wasn't). I thought it pretty warm for their house salsa and I'm ashamed to say I was not up to it. Living here has eroded my taste buds. In spite of the sweat running down my face I ate the salsa anyway because it was delicious.

3 -- Soon after my first taste of that salsa I had a look at the menu. I couldn't believe it: they have the first à la carte menu I've seen since California! And it's not just kiddie stuff! Nothing wrong with rice and beans, but if you include them it's ALWAYS more than I really want to eat.

4 -- {FF⏩} Basic stuff: tacos & enchiladas. Absolutely the BEST Mexican restaurant I have found so far in Florida. The extra kick reminds me of Tex-Mex; the fresh (and plentiful) veggies in the sauce and on the tacos were almost enough to count towards a salad (a hallmark of Californian-Mexican).

I need to call them out on the flatware, however. So far the presentation has been pretty spot-on for this kind of restaurant. Higher-end ceramic dishware and heavy glass margarita glasses. Cool vibe with quirky decorations. Great food, of course. But when I first picked up a fork, I was astonished! One step up from plastic; my flatware from Walmart feels better in my hand. They need to fix this soon!

5 -- Gotta give them five stars, though. I hung out on their back patio for almost two hours and it was so nice and quiet. When I left I was pleasantly full and nicely relaxed for about $12. I thought it was a mistake! I double-checked for errors and left a $20 bill. (This is why I like ordering à la carte.)

I understand they have another restaurant in Viera; may need to try that soon. And I didn't even look at the...